In relation to the Russians, while stupid as all hell, I feel it worked as it's the kind of stupid schlock I'd expect from a Cold War thriller thing, which works as Hopper has always been in the conspiracy thriller camp, so a Russian invasion would be the next "logical" step. It also plays well into Joyce being a crazy lady.
The thing is, "Schlock" isn't what I associate Stranger Things with, tbh. Season 1 was pretty neatly based on stuff like MKUltra, now we have "secret russians under our mall - it's more likely than you think". Might as well throw moon nazis into the mix next season. It sucks and is way too dumb to fit into a show like this. There's a difference between actual conspiracies that actually happened and tinfoil-hat-bullshit conspiritard junk. This is the latter to me.
In any other show, I would love this, in Stranger Things, it's a major step down and simply contemplating the logistics of just building this underground lab without anyone noticing makes my head spin. And that's not even touching upon the problem of manning that whole thing with people wearing russian uniforms and AKs.
It's like the US Army set up all their Manhattan Project facilities in Kansai, right under the Japanese emperor's nose - and getting away with it until they blow up a major city.
Everything about this subplot is stupid, down to the secret code. I guess this was one of the Goonies-inspired things, to have a secret code that leads Dustin and his gang to the base. Why would these russkies use a code that is this easily decipherable?
Russian spies that poke around the Hawkin area to look for Ell would have been great. Throw in Numbers Stations (y'know, something that actually exists. To this day!), the point is: they went with an utterly nonsensical plot element and treated it in the most asinine way and that saddens me.
I also disliked how Joyce went into Paranoia overdrive over a few magnets. I mean, sure, there has been stuff going on that warrants paranoia, but something about this felt forced. It felt like the Duffers said "Joyce acts weird and crazy. Why? Doesn't matter, even when they perfectly know what the fuck is going on, she should act cooky and crazy."
Also the moment she realizes that she was right, she doesn't spare a single line of dialogue in relation to her kids' safety. She just goes along with Hopper and Smirnoff to that crazy dude. Just when that's over does she go "Oh wait, yeah, my kids are in the same town as the evil russian scientists, who want to crack open the dimension-hole again."
Did Will maybe being gay seem really weird to anyone else? Like he was, well pleased isn't the right word, that a girl was crying at his funeral, who he later danced with at the Winter prom or something in season 2. It doesn't quite add up to me that he suddenly doesn't like girls.
Is he though? In the translation it wasn't that clear whether Will isn't yet into girls or if he's not into girls at all. Or if it's just Mike running his mouth and insulting his friend out of frustration.
I am pretty cool with the new chick being a lesbian as it subverts a typical love plot, although they could have just done it with her not being interested. She was a ton of fun and I'm looking forward to more of her next season.
My problem with this is that the previous scene was a clear implication that Robin was into Steve and then they pull the rug under the viewers feet by going "Lolno dum dum, I was disgusted by you, I'm in love with this chick that was in love with you." it came out of nowhere. There was no ambiguity in the previous scene. None. Might as well have Robin start throwing around Russkies with her telecinetic skills and she reveals "Oh yeah, I just so happen to be from the same project as Ell."
It was -like is
chic in Hollywood nowadays- a subversion just for subversions sake. I assumed that by the end of the show, Robin would end up Steve's GF, so I would have welcomed a clever twist to avoid this (since it would have been too obvious), but this clearly wasn't it.
It felt lame, out of nowhere and forced.
I really like Robin's character (if they had toned down her ridiculous degree of language skills a little, at least), so it's a shame this happened.
